The depositional processes that created certain geologic formations (hereinafter, “formations”), for example, hydrocarbon-bearing formations, and diagenetic processes that reformed portions of the hydrocarbon-bearing formations were heterogeneous. Knowledge of the gross mineralogy and petrology of a formation and/or sections of a formation may provide insight into areas of interest in the formation. For instance, gross mineralogy and petrology may identify spots for fracking, for instance, in a shale formation.
Traditional methods of determination of gross mineralogy and petrography are performed on formation samples with different sets of equipment and require some degree of qualitative analysis by a geologist. These traditional methods often are subjective and may result in misidentification of gross mineralogy and petrography characteristics. For instance, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) may provide gross mineralogy of a homogenized sample, but such characteristics as grain size, pore size, and crystalline structure are lost in the sample preparation. XRD also does not provide a measure of organics of the formation sample. SEM/EDS (Scanning Electron Microscope/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy) may identify grain size and structure of a formation sample, but does not provide a direct molecular analysis. In addition, EDS is limited to elemental analysis and neither EDS nor SEM provides a measure of organics of the formation sample. X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) is limited to elemental analysis, which may require correlation to equate the elemental analysis to mineralogy of a sample. XRF does not provide a measure of organics of the formation sample. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), like XRF, is limited to elemental analysis and does not provide a measure of organics in the formation sample. LIBS vaporizes a portion of the formation sample, which may affect reproducibility of the results. Pyrolysis may determine thermal maturity of a formation sample, but the formation sample is physically and chemically altered in this destructive test, adversely impacting reproducibility of results. Further, pyrolysis results may be skewed by the presence of bitumen in a formation sample.